The Walmart Foundation has announced three new grants totaling $2.78M to boost technological innovation in India’s agriculture sector. These grants are designed to improve farmers’ livelihoods, expand market access, and encourage sustainable agricultural practices through technology-driven solutions.
This funding will support the National Entrepreneurship Network (NEN) aka Wadhwani AI (a program of the AI unit of NEN), Cornell University’s Tata-Cornell Institute for Agriculture and Nutrition (TCI) and Precision Development (PxD), aiming to impact over 300K farmers across India.
These grants are aligned with the Walmart Foundation’s goal of reaching 1M smallholder farmers in Indian agriculture sector by 2028, with at least 50% of them being women.
Julie Gehrki, Vice President, Walmart Foundation, says, “Smallholder farmers are vital to advancing India’s agriculture. Our grantees are investing in FPOs to promote sustainability, create opportunities, and enhance tech access, helping farmers boost their incomes. We’re excited about the tech-based solutions from Cornell University, NEN, and PxD to build a more inclusive and resilient value chain.”
NEN: Enhancing Grain Assessment with AI
This grant of over $1.5M to NEN aims to develop innovative AI-based solutions for grain assessment. NEN will accelerate the usage of its AI-driven app to address food security and help farmers in Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra by assessing the quality of soybean grains to gain better market access.
Additionally, NEN’s project aims to integrate the AI model into other agrotech platforms, serving as a Digital Public Good (DPG) for agriculture. This integration is intended to support future training and quality assessment of grain varieties.
“We are focused on empowering smallholder farmers with enhanced knowledge and awareness of grain analysis and quality pricing. Through the new grant, we will provide customized advisory support to 200K farmers through 330+ FPOs in the two states, enabling real-time quality assessment before their products enter the market.”
Cornell University: Enhancing FPO access via ‘My FPO Connect’
The Walmart Foundation has granted $990K to Cornell University’s Tata-Cornell Institute for Agriculture and Nutrition (TCI).This grant to Cornell University aims to advance its FPO platform, which was launched as a hub at its Center of Excellence (CoE) in Delhi in August 2021. New projects include accelerating the web-based ‘My FPO Connect‘ platform, which claims to have data on over 33K FPOs.
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The platform supports FPOs by building their online presence and making them easily discoverable for relevant stakeholders. It allows FPOs, researchers and stakeholders to access comprehensive information through an interactive dashboard, including crop data, sponsoring agencies and financial data. The database will also be available in regional languages to increase access and understanding of FPO success models.
“Accelerating the growth of FPO models is vital to enable India’s smallholder farmers to leverage opportunities, increase market access, and improve farmers’ incomes. The new funding will further support the understanding, development and promotion of effective farm-aggregation models. It will also help in preparing comprehensive databases, such as ‘My FPO Connect’, which will serve as an invaluable resource for all stakeholders interested in supporting FPOs.”
PxD: Harnessing Technology to Boost Customized Digital Advisory
Precision Development (PxD) will continue working with smallholder coffee farmers in Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka to offer customized advisories. This $260K grant will institutionalize PxD’s digital advisory service and Coffee Krishi Taranga (CKT) with the Coffee Board of India, to provide farmers with ongoing access to cultivation information, price updates and coffee industry developments. It will also support the integration of a voice-based, provider-agnostic weather forecast service into CKT and develop videos on key agricultural practices for the Coffee Board.
“This grant will be instrumental in empowering farmers, 50% of whom will be women, by providing them with the tools and resources needed to adopt sustainable practices, strengthen coffee-producing communities across Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka, and have the effect of building their incomes.”
Shri B.Shivakumaraswamy, Deputy Director, Planning & Coordination Cell, Coffee Board of India emphasised that, “CKT has engaged over 125K farmers across South Indian states including Karnataka, Kerala, Tamil Nadu, and Andhra Pradesh. Regular broadcasts on key practices have proven highly beneficial. Additionally, the option to record questions and receive expert answers, along with daily price information, has been a hit among the farmers.”
PxD claims that it’s digital agricultural services have consistently engaged users, with regular polling showing significant adoption of knowledge. With 90K farmers currently using the service, CKT remains committed to adapting to their needs and aims to reach over 130K smallholder farmers.
NEN and PxD will collaborate to support farming communities in Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, and Maharashtra.